WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR

THE Danes not only invaded France and settled in that land, but they won so much power in England that a little more than a
century after the death of Alfred the Great, one of them drove away the weak king Eth'el-red and took possession
of the English throne. The son of this Dane was the famous Ca-nute'. Canute was not only kind and just to his
English subjects, but he seemed to love them and to wish to do his best for them. During his absence from England on one
occasion, he left the government in the hands, not of a Dane, but of an Englishman. Canute was a very sensible man, and
he disliked flattery more than kings are usually supposed to do. Once when his foolish courtiers assured
[87] him that even the sea would obey him, he bade them place his chair on the beach. Then he gravely ordered the ocean to
retreat and not wet even the border of his robe. The courtiers stood about him in some alarm, for they were afraid of
being punished for their untruthfulness. Soon the waves splashed the king, and then he turned to the flatterers and said
gently, "He who is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, He is the one whom the earth an the sea and the heavens obey."

CANUTE ORDERSTHE OCEANTO RETREAT.

Ethelred had fled to Normandy, and there his son Ed'ward afterward known as the Con-fes'sor, grew up. His
mother was a Norman, and his own ways of thinking were French rather than English. After Canute's two sons had died, the
English sent for
[88] Edward to come and rule over them. The young Duke Will'iam of Nor'man-dy, a bold, ambitious man, was his friend and
kinsman, and Edward promised to bequeath him the English throne. After Edward had been in England a while, however, he
learned that he could not give away the throne as if it were a bag of gold, but that the English people had something to
say about who should rule them. When Edward died, therefore, they asked a brave Englishman named Har'old to
become their king.

THE WOUNDINGOF HAROLDATTHE BATTLEOF HASTINGS.

Duke William of Normandy was indignant. He was a descendant of Rollo and was as energetic as the Viking himself. He set
out with a great force of men and ships to seize the kingdom that he believed was justly his own. He sailed straight for
the English coast, and not a ship came out to fight him. He landed at Pev'en-sey near Has'tings, and not a
man threw a spear at him. He began to pillage the country, and no one opposed him. There were good reasons why the
English were so quiet. One was that their fleet was made up of fishing vessels, which were now scattered here and there,
for according to custom their owners were allowed at stated times to take them away in order to attend to their fishing.
Second, the army was made up chiefly of farmers, and they had been permitted to go home to attend to their harvesting.
Harold, meanwhile, was in the north with a few followers repelling an invasion of the Danes. These he conquered at
Stam'ford Bridge; then, making a rapid march to the south he brought together what troops he could, and with no
chance to train them, he fought a fierce battle with the Normans, and was defeated. It is possible that the invaders
might not have won the day if they had not used a favorite trick of their pirate ances-
[89] tors of pretending to run away. The English forgot their orders to keep in their places and dashed forward in pursuit.
Then, when they were unprotected and scattered, the Normans suddenly turned upon them and overcame them. This was the
famous battle of Hastings, or Sen'lac, one of the most important battles in all English history, because it
decided that England should be ruled by the Normans. In France there are some very interesting pictures of this invasion
embroidered upon a strip of linen seventy yards long called the Ba-yeux' Tapestry. These
[90] pictures look as if a little child had drawn them, but there is a good deal of life in them, and they do tell the story.
It is possible that they were worked by William's wife, Ma-til'da, and her ladies in waiting.

BATTLEOF HASTINGS (FROMTHE BAYEUX TAPESTRY)

After the battle of Hastings, William marched to London. No one dared to oppose him, and the chief men of the nation
went to his camp and asked him to become their ruler. So on Christmas day, 1066, William the Conqueror, as he is known
in history, was crowned king in Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of York.

The English watched anxiously to see how their new sovereign would treat them. Those who wished to keep their land had
to go to him and swear to be faithful. The land of those who would not take the oath and of those who had fought at
Hastings came into his hands, and he gave it to his Norman followers. He also gave
[91] the highest offices in church and state to Normans. That was natural; but it was hard for the English to bear,
especially as the Normans looked upon them as rude, ignorant folk, much their inferiors. The English rose against
William again and again. Four years after the battle of Hastings, a valiant leader named Her'e-ward with a large
number of men encamped on the Isle of E'ly
and resisted him for more than a year. William finally reached them by building a causeway through the marsh that
surrounded the island. Hereward escaped, but this was the last rising of the English against their conqueror.

WILLIAMTHE CONQUEROR RECEIVINGTHE CROWNOF ENGLAND.

William was severe, and whoever broke one of his laws was almost sure of punishment, but even the English admitted that
he was just. On one occasion he threw one of his own brothers into prison for wronging his English subjects. Three of
his acts, however, they never forgave. One was his driving away the tenants from many thousand acres of land near his
palace in Win'ches-ter. He may
[92] have done this to prevent any sudden attack upon him; but the people believed it was in order to provide him with a
convenient hunting ground, the New Forest, as it was called; and they were angry. Again they were indignant because he
ordered that a curfew, or cover fire, bell should be rung every evening, and that at its sound all fires
should be covered and all lights put out. William may have felt that this was necessary to prevent people from coming
together at night to plot against him. Moreover, it was an old French custom in order to prevent the burning of houses;
but the English objected stoutly to being told when they were to go to bed. On the whole, however, nothing else made
them quite so angry as William's Dooms'day Book (so called because its records were supposed to be final). In
order to assess the taxes fairly, he sent men throughout the kingdom to find out just how much property each person
owned. The men went into every house, barnyard, and sheepfold, and wrote in their accounts not only who held the land,
but even how many animals there were. Then the English were enraged. They were afraid their taxes would be made larger;
but, worse than that, they felt that it was a great insolence for strange men to come
[93] into their homes and write down their property. They had to yield, however, to this and whatever else William thought
best to do.

Altogether, the English people were not very happy, but to have a king like him was really just what they needed. They
were a little slow and grave, while William was quick and liked a jest. They were good followers and steady fighters;
while William was a bold leader and could change his plans on the battlefield in a moment if those that he had made
failed.

William still ruled Normandy, and he had to go back and forth between the two countries. Normandy was a fief of France,
that is, it was held by feudal tenure, but it was a most independent duchy and was not at all afraid to fight the French
king. In one of their struggles the city of Mantes was burned. When riding over the ruins, William was thrown
from his horse, and afterward died of his injuries. King Edward VII is a descendant of William the Conqueror and Matilda
his wife, and Matilda was descended from Alfred the Great; therefore the present king of England represents both Alfred
the Great and William the Conqueror.

SUMMARY

The rule of Canute. — The flattery of his courtiers. — Edward's promise to William. — Harold becomes king. — The coming of
William. — The battle of Hastings. — The Bayeux Tapestry. — William's treatment of the English. — Hereward's rebellion. — The New
Forest. — The curfew. — The Domesday Book. — Death of William.